Typical of modern machines, the lengthy cycle took over two and half hours but only used just over 1kW of electricity and 56 litres of water. Examining the stain strip, the juice, blood and red wine stains were removed completely, but there was still a shadow where the ketchup had been.

The turmeric and engine oil will never be removed completely without bio powders, but the Panasonic didn’t make much of a dent on either with non-bio. The cleaning result is average for a machine of this price – much better than budget machines, but not as good as some other brands, admittedly more expensive, flagship models.

In a series of other wash load tests we ran the same 80% load using the Panasonic’s ECONAVI/Autocare programme, and got superb results for economy of resources. While the load was not heavily soiled (so the sensing technology would reduce energy, run time etc), the same load finished 45 minutes quicker and used half the electricity of the cottons wash.

The only downside was that in an effort to reduce electricity the spin cycle was reduced, leaving almost 50% of load weight in water in the end wash. That means the clothes will take much longer to air dry or tumble dry.

As a half load test we use 40% of capacity or 3.2kg of washing. This is still a fair pile of clothes, particularly cottons. We ran standard cotton at 40 degrees and an Eco wash with this load, and once again Panasonic’s sensor technology had a dramatically positive impact on energy use.

The standard half load used just under 1kW while the Eco wash drew just 300W. Like the full wash however, the time and water used was almost identical and the spin efficiency took a real hit. On the standard half load wash some 38% of wash weight in water remained, which is about average, while in Eco it was a whopping 53%.